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IMPROVED GATE LATCH.'

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TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Be it known that I, GEORGE W. LARGE, of Yellow Springs, Greene county, Ohio, have invented a new and useful Gate Latch, and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specication.

.This invention relates to a form of latch for gates and doors, which'latch, in the act of closing, becomes available as a lever to slightly elevate the free endv of the gate, and thus to correct any tendency to sagging.

Figure I is a perspective View of a gate provided with the lever latch, the gate b eing unlatched.

Figure 2 is a perspective view of a portion thereof, the gate being latched. v

A represents a customary farm or door-yard gate, hung to a post, B, and closing against a post, C. D is a catch, of usual form. The latchy proper, E, instead of dropping into the catch D by its gravity, has its pivot F so placed as to cause the portion 1, most 'distant from the catch, to preponderate so as to gravitate reversely from the usual direction, and to elevate the outer end 2 of the latch, as seen in fig. 1. The portionl of the latch is made limber, so as to press snugly against a catch, G, whose shoulder y receives and retains the latch when the latter is lifted on to the same. The gravitating portion 1 of the latch may have any convenient handle, H, and may be restricted in its play bya yoke, I. The gate being closed, but unlatched, as in tig. 1. the portion 1 of the latch is elevated so as to bring the portion 2 to bear upon the catch D as on a fulerum, thus converting the latch into a lever of the second kind, by whose instrumentality the free end of the gate is lifted bodily upward, the limberness of the portion 1 enabling it to ascend the incline y of the catchG, and'to snap'or engage over the shoulder g of said catch. The latch, thus resting b y its two ends on the catches D and G, and being pivoted to the free end of the gate, eil'ectually preserves the latter from sagging. In the act of unlatching, the limberness of the portion 1 becomes again available,- by enabling the dislodgment of the latch i from the shoulder'g. The latch and catches may beof metal or of hard wood.

I do not propose to restrict myseifto the precise form selected for' illustration, as the same may he modified; for example, the latch may be rigid and the catch G yielding,"an`4 i a spring may co-operate with or replacethe gravitation of the latch, and the part 1 may form an angle with the part 2.

I claim herein as new, and of my invention- The reversely gravitating lever latch, constructed and operating substantially as and for the purpose set forth. Intestrnony of which invention I hereunto set my hand.

GEO. W. LARGE.

Y Witnesses:

Gao. H. KNIGHT, Mehl. LARGE.l 

